Recently, a swallowable capsule endoscope has been proposed in a field of endoscopes. The capsule endoscope has an imaging function and a radio transmission function. The capsule endoscope travels through inside a body cavity, e.g., through inside organs such as a stomach and a small intestine, during a period from when the capsule endoscope is inserted from a mouth of a subject for an observation (examination) until when the capsule endoscope is naturally discharged, while following peristaltic motion of the organs. Then, as the capsule endoscope travels through inside the organs, the capsule endoscope obtains an image inside the subject for, for example, every 0.5 second.
While the capsule endoscope travels through inside the body cavity, image data obtained inside the body by the capsule endoscope are sequentially transmitted to outside by radio transmission, and stored in a memory provided outside. Since the subject carries around a receiving apparatus having the radio transmission function and a memory function, the subject can freely move during the period from when the capsule endoscope is swallowed until when the capsule endoscope is discharged. After the capsule endoscope is discharged, the image of the organs is displayed on a display based on the image data stored in the memory, so that a doctor or a nurse can make diagnosis (for example, see Patent Document 1).
A viewer device that performs a test and a real time observation is proposed. The test determines whether the capsule endoscope operates normally, and the real time observation is performed on the image data acquired by the capsule endoscope inserted into the subject. Specifically, unlike the aforementioned receiving apparatus, the viewer device does not have a storage unit such as a memory; however, the viewer device does have a display that displays the image data extracted from the received radio signals. By the use of the viewer device, malfunction of the capsule endoscope to be used can be recognized before the capsule endoscope is inserted into the subject of a patient and the like, and the real time observation can be performed on a content of the transmitted image data after the capsule endoscope is inserted into the subject.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-19111